Grand Prix Legends (nicknamed
GPL) is a
computerA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end user, with no intervening computer operator...
racing simulator developed by
Papyrus Design GroupPapyrus Design Group, Inc. was a computer game developer founded in 1987 by David Kaemmer and CEO Omar Khudari. Based in Watertown, MA, it is best known for its series of realistic racing games based on the NASCAR and IndyCar leagues, as well as the unique Grand Prix Legends. Papyrus was acquired...
and published in 1998 by
Sierra EntertainmentSierra Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams. Based in Los Angeles, California, the company was last owned by a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard...
. It simulates the
1967 Formula One seasonThe 1967 Formula One season was the 18th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1967 World Championship of Drivers and the 1967 International Cup for F1 Manufacturers, contested concurrently over an eleven race series which commenced on January 2, 1967, and ended on October 22...
and is considered by many people who play with it one of the most realistic
racing gameA racing video game is a genre of video games, either in the first- or third-person perspective, in which the player partakes in a racing competition with any type of land, air, or sea vehicles. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to entirely fantastical settings...
s ever released.
The real F1 of 1967
The
1967 seasonThe 1967 Formula One season was the 18th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1967 World Championship of Drivers and the 1967 International Cup for F1 Manufacturers, contested concurrently over an eleven race series which commenced on January 2, 1967, and ended on October 22...
is widely viewed as a turning point in Formula One, which was probably the reason it was chosen by the developers of
GPL. The cars were powerful again after the rules changes of 1966 but had no aerodynamic wings yet. They were still rolling on treaded tyres, which made them very delicate to drive. It was also the last full season before sponsors' liveries replaced the teams' traditional
national racing colours in 1968 (with
FerrariScuderia Ferrari is the name for the Gestione Sportiva, the division of the Ferrari automobile company concerned with racing. The racing team has competed in numerous classes of motorsport since its formation in 1929. Currently the team races in Formula One only, under the team name "Scuderia...
keeping the famous Italian
Rosso CorsaRosso Corsa is the red international motor racing colour of cars entered by teams from Italy.Since the 1920s, Italian race cars of Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lancia and later Ferrari and Abarth have been painted in rosso corsa...
). Also in 1968, aerodynamic wings appeared, in different configurations at each race, eventually leading to dangerous tall and fragile constructions.
Despite fatal crashes, safety was not felt to be a particularly important issue in the mid-1960s as it was widely believed that everything that could be done was already done. Apart from
Jackie StewartSir John Young "Jackie" Stewart, OBE , better known as Jackie, and nicknamed The Flying Scot, is a Scottish former racing driver. He competed in Formula One between 1965 and 1973, winning three World Drivers' Championships. He also competed in Can-Am...
's shaping experience of being soaked in fuel while being trapped in a BRM wreck at
SpaThe Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is the venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix and the Spa 24 Hours endurance race. It is also home to the all Volkswagen club event, 25 Hours of Spa, run by the Uniroyal Fun Cup. It is considered to be one of the most challenging race tracks in the world,...
1966, it was the shocking fiery crash of
Lorenzo BandiniLorenzo Bandini was an Italian motor racing driver who raced in Formula One for the Scuderia Centro Sud and Ferrari teams.-Career:...
at the Monaco
chicaneA chicane is an artificial feature creating extra turns in a roadway, used in motor racing and on city streets to slow cars. On modern raceways, chicanes are usually located after long straightaways, making them a prime location for overtaking....
in 1967 as well as Jim Clark's death at Hockenheim in a F2 race in 1968 that got Formula One as a whole to start thinking on the topic more seriously. As one result of that, the 1969 race at
SpaThe Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is the venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix and the Spa 24 Hours endurance race. It is also home to the all Volkswagen club event, 25 Hours of Spa, run by the Uniroyal Fun Cup. It is considered to be one of the most challenging race tracks in the world,...
and the 1970 race at
NürburgringThe Nürburgring, simply known as "The Ring" by enthusiasts, is a motorsport race track in Nürburg, Germany. It was built in the 1920s around the village and medieval castle of Nürburg in the Eifel, which is about south of Cologne, and northwest of Frankfurt...
did not take place due to the drivers boycotting the sites as safety upgrades were not installed as demanded. A simulation based on these seasons would lack these great tracks.
1998 simulation of 1967 cars
The game, developed under the direction of David Kaemmer and Randy Cassidy, was published in 1998 by the Papyrus division of
Sierra EntertainmentSierra Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams. Based in Los Angeles, California, the company was last owned by a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard...
. To this day it maintains a reputation as a very realistic race car simulator. Its strong points are fairly accurate car physics (how the car responds and feels on the track), reasonably attractive graphics, impressive engine sound effects, good online racing and solid Internet support from its user community. The weak points are the game's difficulty as the cars are quite difficult to drive well (although many fans consider this to be a virtue, as Formula One cars of that era were extremely difficult to drive compared to modern high-downforce cars), and some minor physics flaws, such as primitive aerodynamic modelling (for drag etc.), and a simplified tire model that completely omits tire wear. Although, in 1967, racing tires on F1 cars would not wear out during a race and might be used for more than one event.
The cars
The cars available include the
Lotus 49The Lotus 49 was a Formula One racing car designed by Colin Chapman and Maurice Philippe for the 1967 F1 season. It was designed around the Cosworth DFV engine that would power most of the Formula One grid through the 1970s and was the first successful Formula One car to feature the engine as a...
, the Ferrari 312, the Eagle-Weslake T1G, the
Brabham BT24The Repco Brabham BT24 was a Formula One racing car design. It was one of three cars used by the Brabham racing team during their championship-winning 1967 Formula One season. Only three BT24 chassis were ever raced....
and the
H 16An H engine is an engine configuration in which the cylinders are aligned so that if viewed from the front, they appear to be in a vertical or horizontal letter H....
powered BRM P115 (which though striking was not a success; Jackie Stewart called it the worst F1 car he drove in his entire career). There are also two fantasy cars to choose from, the Murasama and the Coventry — thinly disguised stand-ins for the
Honda RA300The Honda RA300 was a Formula One racing car produced by Honda Racing, and introduced halfway through the 1967 Formula One season. It retained the same V12 engine as the preceding RA273 car, but the chassis was designed by Lola's Eric Broadley and based on a previous Lola Indianapolis 500 car...
and the
Cooper T81BThe Cooper T81 was one of the last Formula One racing cars produced by the Cooper Car Company. It was designed ahead of the World Championship season to operate within the new 3 litre engine regulations that came into effect that year...
, with licensing issues precluding these marques from being included in the game. There are third party patches available to put the Cooper and Honda names back in the game. Some cars appeared only late in the season, especially the Lotus 49 which did not take part in Kyalami and Monaco. For all the cars, there are significant graphic updates available, most notably from the
GPLEA (GPL Editors Association), which make the cars look far more realistic and detailed. Most of these were included in the GPL 2004 Demo but there have been subsequent upgrades.
The drivers
The player races against the top drivers of 1967 including
Jack BrabhamSir John Arthur "Jack" Brabham, AO, OBE is an Australian former racing driver who was Formula One champion in 1959, 1960 and 1966. He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name....
,
Denny HulmeDenis Clive "Denny" Hulme OBE was a New Zealand car racer, the 1967 Formula One World Champion for the Brabham team....
, Jim Clark,
Dan GurneyDaniel Sexton Gurney is an American racing driver, race car constructor, and team owner.The son of a Metropolitan Opera star, he was born in Port Jefferson, New York, but moved to California as a teenager...
,
John SurteesJohn Surtees, OBE is a former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and Formula One driver from England. He remains the only person to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels. He is also the ambassador of the Racing Steps Foundation.-Motorcycle racing career:Surtees was the son of a...
,
Pedro RodríguezPedro Rodríguez was a Mexican Grand Prix motor racing driver. He was born in Mexico City and was the older brother of Ricardo Rodríguez. The two are sometimes referred to as "The Little Mexicans". The brothers both raced bicycles and motorcycles to become Mexican champions...
, and
Lorenzo BandiniLorenzo Bandini was an Italian motor racing driver who raced in Formula One for the Scuderia Centro Sud and Ferrari teams.-Career:...
.
Jackie StewartSir John Young "Jackie" Stewart, OBE , better known as Jackie, and nicknamed The Flying Scot, is a Scottish former racing driver. He competed in Formula One between 1965 and 1973, winning three World Drivers' Championships. He also competed in Can-Am...
was not included due to licensing issues.
Unlike the real 1967 season the make-up of the teams remains stable throughout the year. The driver list is not entirely accurate, since some of the computer-controlled drivers appeared only rarely in real life. For instance, the Frenchman
Jean-Pierre BeltoiseJean-Pierre Maurice Georges Beltoise is a former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and Formula One driver who raced for the Matra and BRM teams....
is driving a BRM in the game, although in fact he drove a Formula 2
MatraMécanique Avion TRAction or Matra was a French company covering a wide range of activities mainly related to automobile, bicycles, aeronautics and weaponry which from 1994 was a subsidiary of Lagardère Group and which now operates under that name....
(at that time it was not unknown to see an F2 machine entered in an F1 Grand Prix) on three occasions in 1967, and never drove a BRM before 1972. The presence of the Belgian
Jacky IckxJacques Bernard "Jacky" Ickx is a Belgian former racing driver who achieved 25 podium finishes in Formula One and six wins in the 24 hours of Le Mans.- Racing career :...
who had a minor role in 1967 (driving only at the Nürburgring — also in an F2 car — and at Monza) is also noteworthy in this regard. There are third party patches available to change the driver list.
The tracks
There are 11 vintage 1967 tracks included with the simulator. These include the high speed
MonzaAutodromo Nazionale Monza is a motorsport race track near the town of Monza, Italy, north of Milan. It is one of the most historic motor racing circuits in the world.-Overview:...
circuit in Italy, the roller-coaster-like
MosportMosport International Raceway is a multi-track facility located north of Bowmanville, Ontario. The facility features a , 10-turn road course; a half-mile paved oval; a 2.4 km advance driver and race driver training facility with a quarter-mile skid pad and a...
track in Canada, the tight streets of
MonacoCircuit de Monaco is a street circuit laid out on the city streets of Monte Carlo and La Condamine around the harbour of the principality of Monaco. It is commonly referred to as "Monte Carlo" because it is largely inside the Monte Carlo neighbourhood of Monaco.The circuit is used on one weekend in...
, and the original 14 mile long
NürburgringThe Nürburgring, simply known as "The Ring" by enthusiasts, is a motorsport race track in Nürburg, Germany. It was built in the 1920s around the village and medieval castle of Nürburg in the Eifel, which is about south of Cologne, and northwest of Frankfurt...
Nordschleife in Germany.
All but one of the races in the game are held on the tracks used for the real 1967 season. The French Grand Prix is raced at
Rouen-Les-EssartsRouen-Les-Essarts was a 6.542 km race track in Grand-Couronne, near Rouen, France.From its opening in 1950, Rouen-Les-Essarts was recognized as one of Europe's finest circuits, with modern pits, a wide track, and spectator grandstands...
in GPL, even though the actual Grand Prix that year was held at the
Le MansLe Mans is a city in France, located on the Sarthe River. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Mans....
Bugatti track. This change from reality met little opposition from players: while the Rouen track, site of the 1968 French GP, passes through beautiful landscapes and is pretty interesting for the driver, the Bugatti track and its surrounding landscape is generally considered somewhat lacking in interest by comparison. In fact, the Bugatti circuit proved unpopular with the drivers at that time, Jack Brabham calling it a "Mickey Mouse" track.
Also, licensing issues were probably a factor. Eventually, a version of the Bugatti Circuit was released by the community. (
The Alternative GPL Track Database)
Gameplay
David Kaemmer said that "Driving a 1967 GP car is more difficult than driving just about anything else, and the simulation is more difficult than driving a real car... many people think that it feels like driving on ice."
In some ways GPL is more a virtual sport than a game. The essence of GPL is the talent required to drive these classic cars around the challenging circuits of the 1967 era. As in learning to play a fine musical instrument, the player must have the patience and the light, smooth touch to get the most from these machines.
Much of the difficulty in driving the
GPL machines is due to the accuracy of the physics model, which is limited to dry conditions. Wet races are not missed, though, as the car handling is somewhat slippery anyway. 1967 Grand Prix F1 cars made a large amount of power i.e. over 350 hp (260 kW), had very little mass i.e. about 500 kg (1100 lb), and rode on hard, skinny, 'pre-radial' tires, with no downforce of any kind. All of these factors contributed to what in reality was one of the more dangerous Formula 1 seasons the series would know. Virtual racers can still get away with pushing the reset button, affectionately known as "Shift-R".
Reputation
While Grand Prix Legends provided the most realistic (and hence, difficult) simulation of automotive physics in a PC game at its launch, the reputation of "difficult to drive" was exacerbated by a number of decisions made both for the demo and the launch of version 1.0.
The demo version gave users a taster of the Brabham F1 car at the
Watkins GlenWatkins Glen International is an auto race track located near Watkins Glen, New York, at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. The facility is owned by International Speedway Corporation...
circuit. Unfortunately, the car was set up with approximately one degree of positive
camber angleframe|From the front of the car, a right wheel with a negative camber angleCamber angle is the angle made by the wheel of an automobile; specifically, it is the angle between the vertical axis of the wheel and the vertical axis of the vehicle when viewed from the front or rear. It is used in the...
whereas an actual car of that era would have run one or more degrees of negative camber. Negative camber proportionally increases the lateral grip produced by the outside
tireA tire is a ring-shaped covering that fits around a wheel to protect it and enable better vehicle performance by providing a flexible cushion that absorbs shock while keeping the wheel in close contact with the ground...
when cornering. Positive camber proportionally reduces the amount of grip available from the outside tire when cornering. This resulted in a car whose cornering grip was markedly less than it should have been and whose grip decreased more sharply than expected when the car turned a corner, greatly increasing the skill required to drive the car quickly.
When version 1.0 of the game was launched, it allowed users the option to drive "Novice Trainer", "Advanced Trainer" or fully fledged F1 cars. The Novice Trainer and Advanced Trainer cars approximated
F3Formula Three, also called Formula 3 or F3, is a class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers...
and
F2Formula Two, abbreviated to F2, is a type of formula racing. It was replaced by Formula 3000 in 1985, but the FIA announced in 2008 that Formula Two would return for 2009 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship...
regulations in that they had reduced power and in the case of the Novice Trainer, fewer gears. These trainers were more forgiving to drive, but the game only allowed the cars to be used for practice sessions. It was only possible to race against the computer using the F1 cars, which meant that a player's first experience of competition was in an F1 car at F1 speeds with F1 opponents.
A further complication affected users with lower powered PCs. Version 1.0 of
Grand Prix Legends allowed users to reduce the number of computer opponents if their PCs were unable to render a full grid of cars at a reasonable frame rate. Unfortunately, reducing the field was achieved by removing cars from the back of the grid starting with the slowest, leaving a reduced grid containing only the fastest drivers.
Perhaps the most damaging aspect to the game's reputation was that of
ride heightRide height is the amount of space between the base of an automobile tire and the underside of the chassis; or, more properly, to the shortest distance between a flat, level surface, and any part of a vehicle other than those parts designed to contact the ground...
.
Grand Prix cars from 1967 typically ran 5 to 6 inches of ground clearance, unlike the later
ground effectAircraft may be affected by a number of ground effects, aerodynamic effects due to a flying body's proximity to the ground.One of the most important of these effects is the Wing In Ground effect, which refers to the reduction in drag experienced by an aircraft as it approaches a height...
cars that were designed to have the chassis as close to the ground as possible. Version 1.0 of Grand Prix Legends, allowed its cars to be set up with a ground clearance of only one inch.
Lowering the ride height lowers the center of gravity of the car which helps improve cornering ability by reducing the
roll momentIn a vehicle suspension, roll moment is the moment of inertia of the vehicle's sprung mass . The roll moment is the product of the sprung mass and the square of the distance between the vehicle's roll center and its center of mass...
of the chassis. It also has the side effect of reducing the amount of suspension travel available.
When the suspension in a car is fully compressed, it reaches the bump stops, small blocks of rubber that catch the suspension arms at the end of their range of movement. This is often referred to as "bottoming out". Once a car's suspension reaches the bump stops, its effective spring rate increases sharply as the bump stops are effectively very hard springs. Increasing the spring rate at one wheel transfers weight onto this wheel and away from the other wheels, causing the car to
understeerUndersteer is a term for a car handling condition in which during cornering the circular path of the vehicle's motion is of a greater radius than the circle indicated by the direction its wheels are pointed. The effect is opposite to that of oversteer...
if it is one of the front wheels or
oversteerOversteer is a phenomenon that can occur in an automobile while attempting to corner or while already cornering. The car is said to oversteer when the rear wheels do not track behind the front wheels but instead slide out toward the outside of the turn. Oversteer can throw the car into a spin...
if it is one of the rear wheels. The sudden onset of
understeerUndersteer is a term for a car handling condition in which during cornering the circular path of the vehicle's motion is of a greater radius than the circle indicated by the direction its wheels are pointed. The effect is opposite to that of oversteer...
or
oversteerOversteer is a phenomenon that can occur in an automobile while attempting to corner or while already cornering. The car is said to oversteer when the rear wheels do not track behind the front wheels but instead slide out toward the outside of the turn. Oversteer can throw the car into a spin...
can result in loss of control if the driver does not react quickly enough to the change in handling.
The default setups in Grand Prix Legends combined uncharacteristically low ride heights with short bump stops which resulted in cars whose suspension frequently "bottomed out" and oscillated abruptly between the expected spring rates and much higher bump stop spring rates. This caused the cars to behave erratically over kerbs, bumps and any significant application of acceleration or braking, with only the highly skilled able to fully exploit these "low rider" or "go-kart" setups.
The problem was further complicated by the lack of audible feedback when the cars hit the bump stops, leaving many drivers scratching their heads at the erratic handling of the early setups.
Papyrus were aware that there would be difficulties for the novice even before the simulator was released. On the very first page of the manual, it cautions, "The first time you go out on the track, you WILL spin and crash. This is because, the first time they play Grand Prix Legends, EVERYBODY spins and crashes." Rumor among simulator racing enthusiasts was that when
Jackie StewartSir John Young "Jackie" Stewart, OBE , better known as Jackie, and nicknamed The Flying Scot, is a Scottish former racing driver. He competed in Formula One between 1965 and 1973, winning three World Drivers' Championships. He also competed in Can-Am...
had an opportunity to drive the simulator in the late stages of development, he claimed that it was harder to drive than the actual 1967 Formula One cars.
Papyrus recognised the ride-height problem and the first patch (version 1.1) prevented setups from being lower than 2.5 inches. However, both the default setups and the majority of third-party setups were still designed with the theory used on modern, high-
downforceThe term downforce describes the downward pressure created by the aerodynamic characteristics of a car that allows it to travel faster through a corner by increasing the pressure between the contact area of the tire and the road surface, thus creating more grip.-Fundamental principles:The same...
race cars, with the car as low as possible with an extremely stiff suspension to prevent the car from bottoming out at speed (due to increased aerodynamic downforce not present on 1967 era cars).
Increasing the ride height back up to 1967 levels transformed the handling of the cars and demonstrated the power and sophistication of Grand Prix Legends, but the reputation of "overly difficult handling" and "no grip" was already established. However, for those who were willing to try the more realistic setups, it became obvious that, while total grip levels were still realistically low, the cars were now extremely driveable.
Hardware requirements
When it was launched, GPL required what was for the time quite high-end hardware. While a software renderer is available, for smooth gameplay a 3D card was all but essential, and
GPL supports only two types:
3dfx3dfx Interactive was a company that specialized in the manufacturing of 3D graphics processing units and, later, graphics cards. It was a pioneer in the field for several years in the late 1990s until 2000 when it underwent one of the most high-profile demises in the history of the PC industry...
and Rendition Verité.
GPLs box states that the minimum CPU required with hardware acceleration is a PentiumThe original Pentium processor was a 32-bit microprocessor produced by Intel. The first superscalar x86 architecture processor, it was introduced on March 22, 1993. Its microarchitecture was a direct extension of the 80486 architecture with dual integer pipelines, a faster FPU, wider data bus, and...
90, and without it a Pentium 166, but in reality both these figures are well short of what is needed for a satisfactory frame rateFrame rate, or frame frequency, is the measurement of the frequency at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames. The term applies equally well to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion capture systems...
.
Commercial success
While acclaimed by the press in 1998 as the most realistic racing simulator ever, GPL
did not sell very well, especially in the US, where a Formula One-based game was less appealing than in the European market. Also, the cars were difficult to drive, while the game's hardware requirements meant that it did not run well on many computers at the time of its release.
GPLs lack of inbuilt support for 3D accelerator cards other than those produced by 3dfx and Rendition contributed to a decrease in sales when those cards became obsolete, since at the time there was no
Direct3DDirect3D is part of Microsoft's DirectX API. Direct3D is only available for Microsoft's various Windows operating systems and in the open source software Wine. It is the base for the graphics API on the Xbox and Xbox 360 console systems. Direct3D is used to render three dimensional graphics in...
support.
As of 2004 total sales were around 200,000 units. Many of these sales came quite late in the game's life, when increase in CPU power made the game run more smoothly, and after Papyrus had released patches to allow
GPL to work with modern graphics accelerators. The addition of Force Feedback support also helped. The release of the game on budget ranges, the inclusion of a demo CD with the
NürburgringThe Nürburgring, simply known as "The Ring" by enthusiasts, is a motorsport race track in Nürburg, Germany. It was built in the 1920s around the village and medieval castle of Nürburg in the Eifel, which is about south of Cologne, and northwest of Frankfurt...
in the track's official 1999 season magazine as well as its giveaway in Germany in a 2001 issue of the magazine
PC Action, also encouraged newcomers to
GPL.
Patches
An out-of-the-box copy of GPL lacks several features that one might expect from a modern driving simulation, and so most people add as a matter of course several patches: the official version 1.2 patch that adds force feedback; a second patch to add
Direct3DDirect3D is part of Microsoft's DirectX API. Direct3D is only available for Microsoft's various Windows operating systems and in the open source software Wine. It is the base for the graphics API on the Xbox and Xbox 360 console systems. Direct3D is used to render three dimensional graphics in...
and/or
OpenGLOpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
support; and a third patch that gets around a problem that prevents the original game from working on computers with CPUs faster than 1.4 GHz. It was considered best to get the most recent "all-in-one v2" patch from
SimRacing Mirror Zone to get this sim working at its best but the newly formed
Grand Prix Legends Preservation Society has come out with a new installer which not only installs GPL for the user, upgrading all the tracks and cars that come with GPL to the latest specification, but also helps with custom programs that are invaluable to the user. There is an original demo that was succeeded by the newer
Grand Prix Legends 2004 Demo which has all the required patches included plus upgrades to the cars and track (as of 2004) that are included within the original one.
In later years, it became possible to have regularly-patched
GPL running not only on Windows, but also on competing operating systems such als
LinuxLinux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed,...
and
Mac OS XMac OS X is a line of computer operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc., and since 2002 has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
due to improvements in API-emulating programs such as
WineWine is a free software application that aims to allow Unix-like computer operating systems to execute programs written for Microsoft Windows. Wine also provides a software library known as Winelib against which developers can compile Windows applications to help port them to Unix-like systems.Wine...
and Cider. Some configuration modifications have to be made before the program, despite its apparent lack of 'dirty programming', will run, however.
Community
The backbone of this game is its strong community. There are updates and addons for all tracks, cars, menus, AI, and drivers. There are now more than 500 tracks made by the game's fans, which are listed at the
Alternative GPL Track Database. On-line races are organised using
Virtual Racers' Online Connection. Also available now is a new online tool called iGOR which comes with
GEM+ 2 (a necessary tool for all the new mods.) Many other tools are available, including those allowing
telemetryTelemetry is a technology that allows remote measurement and reporting of information. The word is derived from Greek roots tele = remote, and metron = measure. Systems that need external instructions and data to operate require the counterpart of telemetry, telecommand.Although the term commonly...
-like analysis and various degrees of customisation. These tools are often used for verification of laptimes for inclusion on the
GPLRankGPLRank was/is the first really successful Internet ranking system for participants in simracing...
laptime ranking system.
Testimony to this strong community support, are the extensive graphical updates of the original Monaco track, where numerous photos of the actual GP at the time were collected from the private collections of many people within the community. This to make sure that all the buildings, billboard, bridges and tunnels were historically correct. The project got the name Monaco Rocks and it has been in the works for years, over which period it constantly put out updates of the track.
Another noteworthy feature is the track Montjuich Park. As with the Monaco Rocks project, numerous historical photo's and video's were used to create the most historically correct track possible. With the help of some people within the GPL community, who apperently had connections with Spanish broadcasting companies, the track (along with the 69 mod) served as a representitive retrospective view of the former Spanish GP track during the broadcast of the Spanish GP 2007, with Sir Jackie Stewart commenting on a full on-board lap.
GPL Trackmakers already knew that the original game had a 25 kilometre limit when it came to track length. Modders have now tackled this limitation and patches are being released which solve this problem. In 2009, 11 years after Grand Prix Legends originally came out, and with the length problem out of the way, the community has almost finished its most ambitious project up to now: the realization of the full 72 km long
Targa Florio track.
1965 F1 Mod
In the spring of 2004 the first community made mod for GPL was released (now in version 2). Since the game was
proprietary softwareProprietary software is any computer software with restrictions on use or private modification, or with restrictions judged to be excessive on copying or publishing of modified or unmodified versions. The term proprietary software is thus the opposite of free software, generally speaking...
, and there were no official tools or
SDKsA software development kit is typically a set of development tools that allows a software engineer to create applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar platform.It may be something as simple...
available from Papyrus, almost everything had to be worked out from scratch, the whole process taking about four years. The mod represents the
1965 Formula One seasonThe 1965 Formula One season, which was the 16th season of FIA Formula One racing, featured the 16th World Championship of Drivers and the 8th International Cup for F1 Manufacturers. The two titles were contested concurrently over a ten round series which commenced on January 1 and ended on October...
, the last one where Formula 1 used relatively tiny 1500cc engines. It contains all the cars and drivers and a changed physics engine, which is considered at least as realistic as the original. Due to the smaller engines the cars in this mod are generally considered to be more easy-handling than the 1967 3-litre cars, especially for beginning drivers. In 2004 the 65 Mod won the 'Best Mod' award at Blackhole Motorsports
http://www.bhmotorsports.com/awards/3/winners/325, an international website aimed at 'hardcore' simracers.
Download and Instructions
There is a new patch for the 65 mod that allows for better racing, it can be found
HERE
ThunderCars Mod
Subsequent mods have been somewhat easier to make (since most of the hard work was done for the 1965 mod). In March 2005, the ThunderCars mod was released, which simulates a fictional
spec racing seriesSpec racing is a type of racing in which all competitors race in nearly identical vehicles. The idea behind spec racing is that success will be based more on driver skill and car setup instead of engineering skill and finances. Spec series are popular because they often bring down the cost of...
. The cars are very loosely based on early 1970s
IndyCarSince 1916 there has been a recognized United States national automobile racing National Championship for drivers of professional-level, single-seat open wheel race cars. The championship has been under the auspices of several different sanctioning bodies since 1909. Since 1911, the Indianapolis...
s, only with 426 cid (7.0 litre) big-block V8 engines making 625 hp. The cars are quite fast (with some tracks allowing speeds well in excess of 235 mph), but the big block engine and extra fuel needed to run it during a race make the car less nimble than the F1 cars, while increasing braking distances. Offsetting this somewhat is the addition of slick tires. On June 23 2006 Thundercars Part2 was released, featuring adjustable wing physics similar to those in the 1969 mod.
ThunderCars announcement and download
ThunderCars Part2 release
1969 F1 Mod
The next mod released was one based on the
1969 Formula One seasonThe 1969 Formula One season included the 20th FIA Formula One World Championship season, which commenced on March 1, 1969, and ended on October 19 after eleven races.-Season summary:...
. This mod adds aerodynamic downforce to the physics model, a feature not included in the original physics model. As of the initial release, the wings were only adjustable outside the game in the GEM+ utility (also used to reconfigure GPL for the various mods), while in-game wing settings were later realised in the Part 2 release. Also, there are three carsets: one representing the pre-
MonacoThe 1969 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Circuit de Monaco on May 18, 1969. It was the third round of the 1969 Formula One season.- Qualifying :- Race :-Standings after the race:...
, high-wing configuration, one representing the post-Monaco, low wing configuration, and one without wings as used at Monaco (due to wings being temporarily banned because of major accidents at
Montjuïc ParkThe 1969 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Montjuïc circuit on May 4, 1969. It was the second round of the 1969 Formula One season....
and the Thursday practice session at Monaco). The aero physics will be the same in any case, including removal of the wings for speed at the cost of downforce. The 1969 Mod was released on December 13 2005 with the high-wing car models. Part 2, which features the low-wing car models, in-game adjustable downforce, a revised downforce model that fixes an issue with the front wing, and several other tweaks and enhancements, was released on May 5, 2006. The final release was brought out on April 8, 2007. The major additions and enhancements from the previous two releases include the wingless car models, a more realistic
slipstreamingDrafting or slipstreaming is a technique where two vehicles or objects align in a close group reducing the overall effect of drag due to exploiting the lead object's slipstream...
effect, and many "mod specific" enhancements, meaning that the 1969 Mod can have its own setup separate from the original game and other mods, all the way down to different track graphics.
1969 Mod homepage
Night Mod
This is another fictional mod that was released on April 2, 2006. It includes the original cars and ’65 Mod cars but the difference is that these have lights to be able to drive the
Night Tracks. Until 2008 there had never been any Grand Prix races run in the dark but that doesn’t stop this unusual mod from being quite pleasurable.
Night Mod announcement and info/pictures --
Download and installation guide
1966 F1 Mod
This mod was formally announced on August 8, 2006. Naturally, the mod simulates the
1966 F1The 1966 Formula One season included the 17th FIA Formula One World Championship season, which commenced on May 22, 1966, and ended on October 23 after nine races....
season, with the cars themselves being based on the late season grid to allow as many cars as possible to be nearer the three litre engine formula that the 1966 rules allowed, as opposed to the two litre engines that some teams ran early in the season. The teams are the same teams from 1967, but the cars are generally lower powered (5-10%, excluding the
EagleThe Eagle Mk1, commonly referred to as the Eagle T1G, was a Formula One racing car, designed by Len Terry for Dan Gurney's Anglo American Racers team. The Eagle, introduced for the start of the 1966 Formula One season, is widely regarded as being one of the most beautiful cars ever raced at the top...
, which had to use a 2.7 litre
ClimaxCoventry Climax was a British forklift truck, fire pump, and speciality engine manufacturer.-History:The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, but two years later following the departure of Stroyer, was relocated to Paynes Lane, Coventry, and renamed to Coventry-Simplex by H...
4-cylinderThe inline-four engine or straight-four engine is a four-cylinder internal combustion engine with all four cylinders mounted in a straight line, or plane along the crankcase. The single bank of cylinders may be oriented in either a vertical or an inclined plane with all the pistons driving a...
due to the
WeslakeWeslake Research and Development was founded by Harry Weslake, a cylinder head specialist who had been instrumental in modifying the side valve Standard engine used in the first SS Sports Car...
engine not being ready), and generally somewhat heavier than their 1967 counterparts. The mod includes all the physics developments from the previous 65 and 69 mods (though even further refined), including the downforce model (which winds up being slight lift on these non-winged cars), more realistic tyre characteristics and the
slipstreamingDrafting or slipstreaming is a technique where two vehicles or objects align in a close group reducing the overall effect of drag due to exploiting the lead object's slipstream...
enhancements. Another new feature with this mod is that car choice has been expanded from 7 to 16 (out of a possible 19) and more tracks than 64 per season can be installed. To increase the realism of 60's engine characteristics, most run irregularly at low revs. The 66 Mod was released on December 26, 2007.
1966 Mod homepage
There is a new patch for the 66 mod that allows for better racing, it can be found
HERE
Future Mods
Future mods, planned or in progress if in most cases graphic conversion tools work, include a
RallyeRallying is a form of motor competition that takes place on public or private roads with modified production or specially built road-legal cars. This motorsport is distinguished by running not on a circuit, but instead in a point-to-point format in which participants and their co-drivers drive...
mod, 1935, 1937, 1941, 1951 and 1955
Grand PrixGrand Prix motor racing has its roots in organised automobile racing that began in France as far back as 1894. It quickly evolved from a simple road race from one town to the next, to endurance tests for car and driver...
mods, 1964 and 1967
World Sportscar ChampionshipThe World Sportscar Championship was the world series run for sports car racing by the FIA from 1953 to 1992.The championship evolved from a small collection of the most important sportscar, endurance and road racing events in Europe and North America with dozens of gentleman drivers at the grid,...
mods, a
Lotus CortinaThe Lotus-Cortina was a high-performance car, the result of collaboration between Ford and Lotus.-Mk1:The start of the Lotus Cortina story begins around 1961, when the best of Ford and Lotus got together. Colin Chapman had been looking to build his own engines for Lotus for quite some time...
mod, a
CaterhamCaterham Cars is a manufacturer of specialist lightweight sports cars based in Caterham, Surrey, England and part of the British motor industry...
mod, and at least a 1966 and 1971
CanAmThe Canadian-American Challenge Cup or Can-Am, was an SCCA/CASC sports car racing series from 1966 to 1974.-History:Can-Am started out as a race series for Group 7 sports racers with two races in Canada and four races in the United States of America . The series was initially sponsored by Johnson...
mod.
Also, a mod for 1967
F2Formula Two, abbreviated to F2, is a type of formula racing. It was replaced by Formula 3000 in 1985, but the FIA announced in 2008 that Formula Two would return for 2009 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship...
and (to a lesser extent)
F3Formula Three, also called Formula 3 or F3, is a class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers...
is in the works. Physics settings in the original package allowed a very rough simulation of 1967 F2 and F3, but the appearance of the cars was unchanged and the physics were less accurate than their F1 counterpart. The mod is expected to provide
F2Formula Two, abbreviated to F2, is a type of formula racing. It was replaced by Formula 3000 in 1985, but the FIA announced in 2008 that Formula Two would return for 2009 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship...
car-shapes, physics and cockpits.
Later games
In 2001, a revised version of the
GPL engine was used for
NASCAR Racing 4Papyrus Design Group, Inc. was a computer game developer founded in 1987 by David Kaemmer and CEO Omar Khudari. Based in Watertown, MA, it is best known for its series of realistic racing games based on the NASCAR and IndyCar leagues, as well as the unique Grand Prix Legends. Papyrus was acquired...
. This game was a big hit in the United States, although as usual with
NASCARThe National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947-48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
games, much less so in Europe. The final incarnation of the
GPL engine can be found in
NASCAR Racing 2003 SeasonNASCAR Racing 2003 Season, or NR2003 for short, is a computer racing simulator released in February 2003 by Papyrus for PC and Mac OS X. The game was the last to be released by the company before EA Sports bought the NASCAR license from NASCAR. The game included all of the 2003 NASCAR season tracks...
which was considered at the time to be the benchmark of motorsport simulation excellence, particularly with respect to the tire model. More recently, the online subscription-based simulation iRacing, also designed by Kaemmer and built on the NASCAR Racing 2003 Season code base, has arguably taken over GPLs mantle as the most realistic motorsport simulation available to the public.
External links